Why I Drink More Alcohol Than You

Well this is fun. England's Department of Health ranked the biggest drinkers by industry. Where do you and your colleagues fall? I can't say for sure, but it's definitely below my colleagues and me:

Journalists finish first in the survey, followed by IT workers,
service-sector workers and finance/insurance/real estate folks, who
certainly seem like the group most likely to need their spirits lifted
by spirits. But nobody can touch British journalists. Literally, touch them and they will punch you in a drunken haze. England's scribes consume more wine than any other industry, more liquor and more shots -- in all, enough
alcohol to fill 19 pints in a week. We're the Animal House of the
United Kingdom. Why?

Peer pressure, for one. Almost a third of respondents said they felt
pressured by their colleagues to drink. The study found perverse office
pressure "particularly in industries where entertaining clients or
colleagues involved drinking." (Um, does that sound like IT to you?)

Either way, it seems Nelson was right, after all. Our medium is dying. And it's not just our ads. It's our livers.

(h/t Dave Herbert)

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Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he writes about economics, labor markets, and the media. He is the author of Hit Makers.